May 27, 2016

A majority of highly selected pediatric patients with lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma may be successfully treated with surgery alone, according to study results from the Children’s Oncology Group.

Lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (LPHL) is rare, and standard of care has yet to be established.

“There have been two recurring themes in the literature about LPHL in the last few decades,” Burton E. Appel, MD, MBA, pediatric hematologist–oncologist at the Institute for Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders at Hackensack University Medical Center’s Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in New Jersey, told HemOnc Today. “The first is that some patients with very limited disease that is totally resected can be cured by surgery alone, with case reports and small series to support this. The second is that LPHL may behave more like a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma than classical Hodgkin lymphoma, and may be cured with less therapy.”